We’ve already given you the year’s most important and most surprising photos, but 2013’s most incredible science photography shouldn’t be left out of the fold. From zoology to physics to astronomy to microbiology, we’re bringing you 2013’s best science photos:

The Aurora borealis' serene color palette as seen from the Arctic Circle.

The ultra-technicolor adhesive pad of a ladybird beetle's foreleg, brought to us by Jan Michels of Germany's Institute of Zoology.

The leafy liverwort's delicate composition as presented by Magdalena Turzanska of Poland's University of Wroclaw.

Chicago's crackled and cold icon, "Cloud Gate", this past March just following a much loathed blizzard's unleashing of 10 inches of snow.

Well, that's one way to put out a fire: Chicago's bitter winters turn what was a raging warehouse fire into a grim ice castle.

Found inside the North American Nebula, the Cygnus Wall boasts one of the highest concentrations of star formations. Astrophotographer Bill Snyder captured this image--over 1,800 light years away--over an 18-hour period.

Ted Kinsman of New York's Rochester Institute of Technology presents a thin section of dinosaur bone preserved in clear agate.

Jan Smekal of the Czech Republic won 2013 MILSET gold for this aeronautics and space image.

The physics of light energy conveyed in high definition goodness.

With a completion date slated for 2020, the Giant Magellan Telescope will provide Earthlings with celestial sights ten times greater than the Hubble Telescope. Or at least, that's what we hope. The Magellan will have a resolving power ten times greater than Hubble.

Looking somewhat like what you might find in the Badlands, Mars' Hebes Chasma is filled with flat-topped mesas.

The most accurate map yet of the Milky Way's bulge, courtesy of dual data sets from the European Space Observatory's VISTA telescope.

Another shot of the Milky Way, this time seen from astrophotographer Michael Ciuraru's vantage point in Acadia National Park, Maine.

The Milky Way as seen from the European Southern Observatory's aptly named Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Chile's Paranal Observatory.

The radiant Sh2-64 nebula featured above may be found in the Serpens constellation. Sh2-64 is an emissions nebula, which means that it consists of interstellar gas clouds that, when coming into contact with a nearby energy source, causes the gas to glow.

A portrait at MoMa or science? Pedro Barrios-Perez of the National Research Council of Canada/Information and Communication Technologies presents silicon dioxide on polydimethylglutarimide-based resist.

This composite of November's solar eclipse features the glowing sun behind the moon as well as the solar corona (the heavenly-looking particles that we see emanating from the sun's surface when it's obscured by the moon).

One hapless bird finds itself in the clutches of a red-legged golden orb-web spider. These spiders can grow to the size of a human hand.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captures W5, a star-forming region, in infrared. The blue dots are the oldest stars, and the younger stars can be seen in pink. The youngest of all are found in the white, knotted areas. What's the green? Dense cloud formations.

Iceland's Strokkur geyser is predictably temperamental: every four to eight minutes, the geyser shoots steaming hot water 130 feet in the air.

Looks can be deceiving: while NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory presents us with a fiery image of the sun, the center of the universe is actually composed of plasma.

The International Space Station captures a peaceful sunrise over the South Pacific Ocean in May 2013.

A beautiful thunderstorm rages over False Kiva, Utah.

Formed by millions of years of water erosion, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park's limestone pinnacles resemble a formation from a James Cameron film. Even more astounding, the pinnacles are actually remnants of sandstone mountains.